With no one else to watch them while he attends a job interview, Donald Duck begrudgingly leaves his nephews Huey, Dewey and Louie with his uncle Scrooge McDuck, who has difficulty bonding with them. Webby Vanderquack, the granddaughter of Scrooge's housekeeper Mrs. Beakley, befriends the boys and shows them examples of Donald's heroics as Scrooge's sidekick, but they inadvertently release various ancient evils housed in the artifacts in Scrooge's garage.
After not speaking to each other for ten years, Donald Duck reunites with his estranged uncle Scrooge McDuck when he asks him to babysit his three triplet nephews Huey, Dewey, and Louie for the day. The boys rekindle Scrooge's sense of adventure, and he invites Donald and the boys to live at McDuck Manor with him, along with his housekeeper Mrs. Beakley and her granddaughter Webby Vanderquack. Together, along with Scrooge's chauffeur and pilot Launchpad McQuack, the Ducks go on many new treasure-hunting expeditions and globe-trotting adventures while contending with villains like Flintheart Glomgold, the Beagle Boys, and Mark Beaks.